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  <div class="section" id="module-spwd">
<span id="spwd-the-shadow-password-database"></span><h1>35.3. <a class="reference internal" href="#module-spwd" title="spwd: The shadow password database (getspnam() and friends). (Unix)"><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">spwd</span></tt></a> &#8212; The shadow password database<a class="headerlink" href="#module-spwd" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1>
<p><em>Platforms: </em>Unix</p>
<p class="versionadded">
<span class="versionmodified">New in version 2.5.</span></p>
<p>This module provides access to the Unix shadow password database. It is
available on various Unix versions.</p>
<p>You must have enough privileges to access the shadow password database (this
usually means you have to be root).</p>
<p>Shadow password database entries are reported as a tuple-like object, whose
attributes correspond to the members of the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">spwd</span></tt> structure (Attribute field
below, see <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">&lt;shadow.h&gt;</span></tt>):</p>
<table border="1" class="docutils">
<colgroup>
<col width="13%" />
<col width="27%" />
<col width="60%" />
</colgroup>
<thead valign="bottom">
<tr><th class="head">Index</th>
<th class="head">Attribute</th>
<th class="head">Meaning</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody valign="top">
<tr><td>0</td>
<td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">sp_nam</span></tt></td>
<td>Login name</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>1</td>
<td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">sp_pwd</span></tt></td>
<td>Encrypted password</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>2</td>
<td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">sp_lstchg</span></tt></td>
<td>Date of last change</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>3</td>
<td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">sp_min</span></tt></td>
<td>Minimal number of days between
changes</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>4</td>
<td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">sp_max</span></tt></td>
<td>Maximum number of days between
changes</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>5</td>
<td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">sp_warn</span></tt></td>
<td>Number of days before password
expires to warn user about it</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>6</td>
<td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">sp_inact</span></tt></td>
<td>Number of days after password
expires until account is
blocked</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>7</td>
<td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">sp_expire</span></tt></td>
<td>Number of days since 1970-01-01
until account is disabled</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>8</td>
<td><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">sp_flag</span></tt></td>
<td>Reserved</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>The sp_nam and sp_pwd items are strings, all others are integers.
<a class="reference internal" href="exceptions.html#exceptions.KeyError" title="exceptions.KeyError"><tt class="xref py py-exc docutils literal"><span class="pre">KeyError</span></tt></a> is raised if the entry asked for cannot be found.</p>
<p>It defines the following items:</p>
<dl class="function">
<dt id="spwd.getspnam">
<tt class="descclassname">spwd.</tt><tt class="descname">getspnam</tt><big>(</big><em>name</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#spwd.getspnam" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Return the shadow password database entry for the given user name.</p>
</dd></dl>

<dl class="function">
<dt id="spwd.getspall">
<tt class="descclassname">spwd.</tt><tt class="descname">getspall</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#spwd.getspall" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Return a list of all available shadow password database entries, in arbitrary
order.</p>
</dd></dl>

<div class="admonition-see-also admonition seealso">
<p class="first admonition-title">See also</p>
<dl class="last docutils">
<dt>Module <a class="reference internal" href="grp.html#module-grp" title="grp: The group database (getgrnam() and friends). (Unix)"><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">grp</span></tt></a></dt>
<dd>An interface to the group database, similar to this.</dd>
<dt>Module <a class="reference internal" href="pwd.html#module-pwd" title="pwd: The password database (getpwnam() and friends). (Unix)"><tt class="xref py py-mod docutils literal"><span class="pre">pwd</span></tt></a></dt>
<dd>An interface to the normal password database, similar to this.</dd>
</dl>
</div>
</div>


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